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covered up damage in purchased home

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pearce

Junior Member
What is the name of your state?Ohio.

We purchased a home with 'central air'.
We had an independant inspector check the home, then the real estate office also sent an appraiser at a later time. Our inspection was done with the power off, the FHA appraiser had the power on.

In trying to figure out what was wrong with the central air, we called the sellers, wondering is there was something we were not doing right. Haven't heard from them since we left a message at both the home and both work numbers.

We called a repairman to look at it, and add freon, because the house had not been occupied for quite a few months.

The repairman called our attention to a copper pipe that had been damaged/gashed,
electrical tape was wound around the damage, and the old insulation had been put over it to make it appear as if nothing was wrong.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3031/568/1600/air11.jpg

Moisture got in through the gash in the copper freon tube, damaged the air unit, so thus, there's no air conditioning.
If we knew there were no HVAC, we would have asked for a lower price. We would have liked for the sellers to be honest, and at least tell us there was damage, or, at least have not hidden the damage.

Is there any recourse we can take?
 


HomeGuru

Senior Member
pearce said:
What is the name of your state?Ohio.

We purchased a home with 'central air'.
We had an independant inspector check the home, then the real estate office also sent an appraiser at a later time. Our inspection was done with the power off, the FHA appraiser had the power on.

In trying to figure out what was wrong with the central air, we called the sellers, wondering is there was something we were not doing right. Haven't heard from them since we left a message at both the home and both work numbers.

We called a repairman to look at it, and add freon, because the house had not been occupied for quite a few months.

The repairman called our attention to a copper pipe that had been damaged/gashed,
electrical tape was wound around the damage, and the old insulation had been put over it to make it appear as if nothing was wrong.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3031/568/1600/air11.jpg

Moisture got in through the gash in the copper freon tube, damaged the air unit, so thus, there's no air conditioning.
If we knew there were no HVAC, we would have asked for a lower price. We would have liked for the sellers to be honest, and at least tell us there was damage, or, at least have not hidden the damage.

Is there any recourse we can take?
**A: why was the home inspection completed with no power?
That was not smart.
 

pearce

Junior Member
HomeGuru said:
**A: why was the home inspection completed with no power?
That was not smart.
You are correct. In retrospect, it was not smart.
We could not turn on the power, as we did not own the house at the time, the seller had to, but it was not turned on in time for the appointment.
I want to ruefully add, "Aha, now I know why!" but I can't, in all honesty, not having the power turned on in time could've have been due to an oversight of the electric company.
We had notified the sellers of the need to have the power on, and told them the time of the appointment, etc..
We were told that the power would be on, but when our inspecter went through, it was not on. We found this out when he handed us our report.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
pearce said:
You are correct. In retrospect, it was not smart.
We could not turn on the power, as we did not own the house at the time, the seller had to, but it was not turned on in time for the appointment.
I want to ruefully add, "Aha, now I know why!" but I can't, in all honesty, not having the power turned on in time could've have been due to an oversight of the electric company.
We had notified the sellers of the need to have the power on, and told them the time of the appointment, etc..
We were told that the power would be on, but when our inspecter went through, it was not on. We found this out when he handed us our report.

**A: the inspector should have refused to complete the inspection and notifed you immediately. The you should have talked to your agent and requested a contract extension to complete the home inspection. Now you need to file a claim against the Seller.
 

pearce

Junior Member
Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it.
I suspect I'll now have to do quite a bit of research, as I've got only photos, the tape and old insulation in a baggie, and the HVAC repairman's witness-
(and yes, the damaged pipe, still where it is.)

I'll forward to the inspector your advice.
Thank you.
 

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